What does one do now?
The Abridged Version...
You tell your man you want to go backpacking in Europe and he starts logging countless hours researching, reading, booking hostels and interviewing everyone and anyone that's ever been or even in the vicinity of Europe, while you have cocktails with your friends talking about how cool it's going to be, Done! Boom! (Whew...out of breath from that run on sentence)
Ok, Ok, it's not that easy. Lets start with the more factual story
The Unabridged Version...
I started with my beau, Joe, and it wasn't an easy sell. To ask someone to leave the US for the summer when you have a house, teenager, dogs and a full time job, it can seem highly unrealistic. Who has that much vacation or mucho dinero? What job is going to let you abandon ship for months to go trekking around Europe in your tighty whities? Well, It starts with a simple task...
"just ask"
And that's what I told Joe to do after the bewilderment and ridiculousness of the whole situation wore off his face. He went in to work the next day and did that simple thing we all sometimes forget to do (because we assume the outcome will be bleak)......he asked.
And believe it or not, they said; "Yes." Leave of absence granted! Lucky duck!
For me, my situation on the other hand didn't have the same outcome. My job pretty much gave me the "finger" but I expected it. Management had a tract record of making poor decisions but they did throw me a bone and told me I would be put on the "rehire" list. "Holla Shock Collar" After 7 years of busting my balls and toiling away under perilous job security, I'll take it. After all, the company had an endless revolving door of employees coming and going. I was lucky to make it this far without being shit-canned (I may not be on the rehire list after writing that). But in all honesty, I liked my job and there wasn't another one out there quite like it.
So here I stand, in the middle of my life with a fork in the road. How often can you keep saying to yourself " I would love to do that someday", "I would love to see that someday", "One day I will have to go there", before your life passes you by? This was it for me! It was do it or let it haunt me until I did do it". Or even worse, regret that I didn't do it. AND..... I had someone crazy enough to do it with me...Joe. I had to make a decision that would forever change me.
